Quotes (10/20): Shurmur, Vernon, Hunter, Emmanuel

A: Yeah, he kind of got his leg tangled up yesterday in practice so we’ll just see how it responds here overnight. We’ll just have to see.

Q: You’re calling it a leg?

A: Knee.

Q: Is he questionable? What’s his status?

A: We’ll see how it responds overnight.

Q: Is there anybody who is out?

A: Jawill Davis, I think you were made aware, he had some lingering effects from last week’s game, so I think he’s in the protocol.

Q: I know you brought in (Bennie) Fowler, but will you have to bring somebody up from the practice squad?

A: Possibility of bringing somebody up.

Q: Would that be Corey (Coleman)?

A: We will see. It’s a possibility.

Q: How has (Corey Coleman) done so far?

A: He’s done a good job. We’ve got really two new receivers in here with him and Bennie Fowler both, so crash-course and from what I’ve seen in practice, those guys are doing a good job.

Q: A guy who’s kind of a returner in that group too is Quadree Henderson. I know he’s not exactly new, he’s been here a couple weeks, but what have you seen from him?

A: I’ve seen the same thing. He was a really fine returner in college and we brought him here with the idea that he might return for us at some point. He’s also done a good job picking up the receiver stuff.

Q: What are your expectations for (Olivier Vernon) for (Monday)? He played ten days ago or so.

A: I expect him to go out and play a good football game and put a winning performance on the field.

Q: What did you think of his first game and how good is it to have someone like him back?

A: I think he had some very disruptive reps in terms of putting pressure on the quarterback. Whether you sack the quarterback or not, pressure is what you’re trying to get. He had some really good snaps the other night. The key when you’re doing anything a second time like he’s going to play only his second game of the year is to build on it and play better.

Q: What have you seen from B.J. Goodson? I assume his role might expand a little bit with Ray-Ray (Armstrong) being out?

A: He’s a good, solid football player, he knows what we’re doing, he’s where he’s supposed to be, he could get the defense lined up if we need him to. He’s a good, solid player.

Q: Do you think the extra time between the games will be beneficial? Has it worked to your advantage?

A: I’ve been doing this long enough to know that there’s sometimes when it helps, it’s all going to be how we play on (Monday). It’s important that we just keep trying to practice well and then get in a good frame of mind and go out and compete, and put a winning performance out there. Short week, long week, normal week – I’ve seen the good and the bad after all of those. We have a team here that is staying in the moment, I think we had three really good days of practice. Despite the outside noise, they’re staying in the moment and competing.

Q: What do you mean by “despite the outside noise”?

A: The questions you all ask me about all the time. That’s the outside noise, and so I encourage them to stay in the moment. Fill in the blank from there.

Q: Speaking of the outside noise, you were asked a few questions earlier this week about showing more fire and you called that “BS”. Why do you feel it’s BS?

A: Because I think it’s a ridiculous question. I think you’ve been around me enough to know what’s important and things I don’t like, and I don’t understand what showing that for a less than genuine reason is the way to go. The players know how I feel and when there’s a situation that comes up that I don’t feel good about, they know it. That’s why I think it’s a ridiculous question. Got it? And that’s outside noise, too.

Q: When you faced (Saints WR) Michael Thomas, you had (Janoris) Jenkins pretty much shadow him the whole game. Does the Falcons two and three receivers make that harder to do, because (Mohamed) Sanu and (Calvin) Ridley are good, so you can’t do that with Julio (Jones)?

A: They have three really good targets at wide out, so we have a plan going into it and we’ll let it reveal itself Monday.

Q: With (Patrick) Omameh being injured, is Spencer Pulley next in line or would you consider moving (John) Greco?

A: Both are good. We could play Pulley at center, we could move Greco to guard, or we could play Pulley at guard. We get a good rotation at practice to be ready for any injury that might happen during a game, so if something happens during practice, it’s not like we’re starting fresh from there.

Q: How much do you like seeing what’s going on behind you with (Kyle) Lauletta getting extra work right now?

A: Our players all do that. This is a day where we went fast, I thought the practice was good. They’re all in getting the recovery that they need, and I think Kyle is trying to be the best he can be. All the little extra work I think is important. Typically a quarterback will try to go through and if he’s not the starter, he’ll try to make all the throws he would make if he were in the game. I think that’s what he’s doing right now. In fact, I know that’s what he’s doing, even though I didn’t see it.

LB Olivier Vernon

Q: How do you feel physically?

A: I feel pretty good. Football season, you can only feel as good as you try to make yourself feel.

Q: So the ribs was a minor thing?

A: Ribs? Who said ribs?

Q: They had you on the injury report whenever Monday was.

A: I’m just messing with y’all, I’m alright. I’ll be good.

Q: You obviously made somewhat of an impact in limited reps in the first game. How do you plan to build off that and are you kind of ready to be 100 percent in on Monday?

A: I’m just trying to go in, know what I have to do as far as assignment wise. We’re playing a really good team and just do what I can for the most part.

Q: You had a sack and you disrupted. Did you feel like – were you happy with how you played in your first time back?

A: Not really because we didn’t really win, so all of that kind of gets voided. I’d rather have gotten the win. That probably means a lot more.

Q: But did you feel like, considering you missed so much time, wasn’t that much rust?

A: Football is football. It don’t really change. My thing was just trying to get a win.

Q: They’re really good in the red zone. What do you guys have to do in the red zone to make sure that they’re not as efficient getting touchdowns?

A: We just got to stay solid. We got to stay solid and play our football. Stick to assignments, stick to just what we have to do to contain. They got really explosive players on the offense, great quarterback, so whatever we can do to contain and try to disrupt, that’s it.

Q: I know you didn’t play the first five games, but it seems like the Giants pass rush overall has been getting hits or knockdowns or pressures but not sacks and I know that you’re talking about the difference there of a half second or a second. How do you erase that? How do you make sure that they go from pressures to sacks?

A: Just keep getting after it. At the end of the day, if pressures equal a turnover, that’s still as good as somebody getting a sack, so guys are getting it, they’re fighting, trying to win their one-on-ones, they’re getting back in the backfield trying to disrupt the quarterback. If they’re putting the pressure on and we’re putting the pressure on the quarterback, as a defense as a unit, everything else is going to fall into place.

Q: Why do you think you guys haven’t produced as many turnovers as you would’ve liked?

A: Sometimes that’s just how it is. That’s just something you got to keep working at and it’s going to come. It’s going to come eventually, but can’t wait for it. You got to go take it.

Q: Does the team get a lift when you’re in there? Not to put too much on your shoulders, but do you feel like it picks everybody else up when you’re in there?

A: I have no idea. I just know when everybody’s out there when they’re playing that defense, they’re all playing for each other and they getting after it. Everybody out there trying to get the W. Don’t matter who’s in the game, who’s not. That’s just the type of guys we have in this locker room. It’s not predicated off of one person, it’s everybody.

Q: A few guys said though you being back kind of brings kind of a normalcy factor where it kind of puts guys back in their natural roles. Do you see that?

A: Yeah, you got more guys – when it comes down to it and guys are not able to be out there, it does put much more responsibility for other guys. A lot more things to put on somebody else’s plate and the more guys we get to have back, the more easier it gets to distribute the workload.

Q: Do you feel a sense of urgency considering you missed games and your record is where it is to kind of turn this around?

A: My thing is just getting out there and making sure I’m doing all the right things. Sense of urgency is – when somebody says that, like I don’t know how to respond to that because every time we take the field on Sundays we’re trying to get a win. It’s not like we’re coming in lackadaisical trying to let’s maybe win. No, that’s not our mindset. Our mindset every Sunday, Monday, Thursday is trying to get a win, so I don’t know what the sense of urgency is. I just know we just trying to go out there and get a win, no matter what it is.

Q: How is your ankle? Is it at 100 percent or will it ever be 100 percent this season at all?

A: I’ll be fine.

Q: Do you feel ready to go a full 60 and be yourself?

A: Whatever I’m allowed to do, I’m there to help and contribute. That’s it.

Q: But do you feel like physically yourself?

A: I’m out there, so once you’re out there, you suit up, don’t matter what it is, you’re out there. I feel like I’m just ready to play. That’s it.

Offensive Line Coach Hal Hunter

Q: Can you give us an update on (Nate) Solder and where he stands?

A: Any type of issue like that is coming from the head coach, I can’t comment on that. I can’t comment on that.

Q: When we talked to you in the spring, you were excited about the progress you thought Ereck Flowers was making. Where did it go wrong?

A: I say that Ereck came in and we put him right through with the first group because we wanted him to work with the first group to try to get that and he had a great attitude when he came in and he worked hard and pressed to it. The big thing is you don’t really know until you get into the heat of the battle. You’re out there running around in sweats during the spring and you’re working the spring and doing all those things. Then when you get in and actually start to get into preseason games and real games, that’s when the rubber meets the road. You’re either productive or you’re not productive and I would say he put his best foot forward and gave us his best effort and it wasn’t working the way we needed to work. We felt like we owed Chad Wheeler an opportunity to get out there and show what he could do. When he got out there, he was more productive and so that’s kind of the name of the game, right. Again a lot of times you don’t really know until you get through the preseason into the real season when – the preseason games sometimes you play first three plays, what, 12 plays and 15 plays and maybe 20 plays? Then when you get into a real game when you have to play 60-70 snaps, that’s when you’re going to find out. He gave it his best go, wish him the best and then we just had to move in a different direction.

Q: Considering Chad, I don’t think took more than a handful of first team snaps all training camp, mini camp, etc. How has he done with the first team?

A: He’s done good. What happens is when he’s not taking those reps basically he’s running his plays off of cards getting the defense ready for their opponent. He’s not really running your offense, but he did a really good job with doing the tech – we coached up technically, I coached him up technically and kept him up to speed what we’re doing. He did a good job in the meetings understanding what’s going on so he’s making some good progress fitting into what we’re trying to do. I think he’s been fairly productive. It’s always a challenge, you’re always matched up against good rushers on the outside edge, but I’m pleased with the progress he’s made. He’s got a great attitude and he’s shown some good toughness, some good competitiveness.

Q: I assume you were able to make that move with Ereck though because you feel confident in (Brian) Mihalik –

A: Brian’s done a good job on that. Those type of decisions are really decisions that other people make. When the people that make those decisions make those decisions, it’s my job – I coach whoever shows up. Brian, he’s had a great attitude, he’s had a great week of practice this week, he’s tough, he’s got some size and length and he’s practicing really good and he is demonstrated to the offensive staff that he has the ability to go in there and play.

Q: Six weeks into the season how can you make this offensive line better and are there different schemes that you –

A: With the offensive line it’s all about – bottom line with anything is about being productive so the number one thing we have to do is if we’re all in this thing together like we talked about before we even took the field, players and coaches together, you look at that and you all share responsibility. Pretty much everybody in the NFL runs about the same plays. They’re blocking pretty much the same way and so I think the schemes are solid. What we’re trying to do is really solid. The bottom line is you have to go out and execute those schemes and there’s really three parts to it. One, you got to go out and play with great effort and great toughness that’s the bottom line because the upfront game is a brutal, violent game. Two, you have to have very good assignment competency and the third part of the equation is you still have to play good. You go out there, play with great energy and great toughness, and know what you’re doing, but you still got to be productive and that’s the assignment. I feel really good about the guys that play with great effort and great toughness. I feel good about that and we’ve not had any – our mental errors are practically null so evidentially you know what you’re doing. So again, teach them what to do, put them in the right situation and go out there and execute and we got to continue, they and I need to continue to work together to get them to execute at a higher level. The hard part about offensive football and offensive line play is on defense, four guys can do something wrong and one guy does something right and he makes a tackle. On offensive line play, the running backs and you have tight ends and everything and you can have seven guys doing something right and one guy does something wrong and a plays not a productive play. That’s the challenge of the play especially in the running game so what we need to do is we need to have all cylinders firing and right now and in some of the plays when all cylinders firing, you see that back come ripping and roaring out of there like dang this is what we need to have. When one of those cylinders isn’t firing right, the engine sputters a little bit and that’s kind of what’s going on right now. Our job is to work together to get all those pistons of that v8 engine working, all those cylinders firing in sync.

Q: What’s stood out to you about Will (Hernandez) and his development?

A: Will’s done a very good job. You first come from college to the NFL, the game’s really fast. It’s a really fast game. I told him that next to a playoff game, the fastest game you’re ever going to have is going to be Sunday Night Football in the NFL. That’s what resembles a playoff game. You go down to Dallas that game was really fast. He understands the speed of the game so basically, slowly but surely, I think the game is slowing down for him, which I think is really important. When the game starts to slow down, you start to see things, you see stunts better, you see blitz’s better, you see line movement better. He’s playing better pad level, he understands the game, he’s playing with better speed, he’s starting to figure out the complication because he’s seen so much stuff for the very first time and you don’t get this stuff in the college game. These complicated blitz packages and these defenses plus the menus a lot bigger for him. We do a lot more things offensively, a lot more plays and schemes, and there’s a lot more defenses he’s got to do it against so just the volume on both sides of the ball and the speed of the game. He’s getting the volume, his mental errors are next to none. I think he’s gone the last two games, three games with no mental errors which is a really big deal. That means he’s really getting a grasp of it and he’s reacting much faster. You can see him on tape when things are happening, he’s reacting to them a lot faster than he did. He’s diagnosing them a lot faster than he did his first couple weeks of the year so that’s progress that you make and he’ll continue to make progress game after game after game through these first couple years in that aspect of it.

Q: You have a guy on your bench in Spencer Pulley who I think started 16 games for a team last year. Is he pushing to get into your starting lineup?

A: Yeah he’s doing a great job. He’s really smart. The first thing I did when we got him I called Phillip Rivers to ask about him and Phillip gave me great insight into the guy and so based on that it helped me coach the guy a little bit. He’s tough and he’s athletic. I think he’s got a good grasp of the offense and I think he is pushing toward perhaps maybe being one of the first five. We’ll see what happens as the season goes on. (John) Greco’s done a great job filling in. He did the same thing for me in Cleveland. He was a guard that actually was forced into playing center when our center got hurt in Cleveland. That’s kind of what’s happened here. He’s a guard that’s been forced into center play and he’s been really solid at the center position these last couple of weeks.

Q: How unique is it when you’re teaching your guys when they have a running back like Saquon (Barkley) who can go where the play is not designed? Is that – it’s probably a good challenge, but –

Q: It’s a good challenge because the bottom line is the running backs are – the guy is a special guy. I have not been around a guy like that since I was in San Diego when we had LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) in the backfield. He’s that kind of running back. He is so dynamic and so what we need to do is we need to cover up those linemen up front. We need to cover those guys up and we need to get him to the linebacker level because if we get him to the linebacker level, it’s hard to tackle that guy, we’ve all seen that. It’s our job to get him through the line to the linebacker level and that’s what we talk about all those guys hitting on the same piston. He’s got to get in sync with the offensive line. It’s the offensive line’s job to continue to morph and change. His reads change a little bit so when we solidify the five guys and get them playing together, continue to develop and play with more productivity and as one, he’ll get a better feel behind those guys and I think he’s starting to get that. It’s our job to get him to the next level and that’s what we need to do because he is a special back.

Q: Greco said seven yards a carry because he thought it might be possible for him –

A: I think that. If we do our job, I say yeah. If we do our job, I think – every time he gets through the line of scrimmage he does have the chance to go the distance, we’ve all seen that. We have to get him through the line of scrimmage, that’s our job, and that’s the number one thing we’re talking about, number one thing we’re working on right now. Get him to the next level and then of course protect the quarterback.

Defensive Line Coach Gary Emmanuel

Q: What have you seen from (DL) RJ McIntosh since he’s started practicing again?

A: RJ is coming out. Just getting back in the swing of football. He’s been away for a little bit. He’s progressing, working on the fundamentals of the game. Working on the run game, working on the pass rush.

Q: How much was he able to do in the meeting rooms before he got on the field?

A: He’s always able to participate in the meetings. He just couldn’t do anything out there on the field. He’s been in full participation in meetings.

Q: What have you seen from (LB) Olivier Vernon in terms of the spark he gave you last game? Do you expect for him to play despite dealing with some basic soreness?

A: That’s something you have to ask him about whether he’s 100% or not, but we expect for him to continue to develop and continue to play where he left off at.

Q: How much of a difference did he make for you guys playing that game versus when you didn’t have him?

A: Anytime that you have a guy that has the career he’s had, the attitude, the defense, it always makes a big difference.

Q: What are you getting out of (DL) Kerry Wynn?

A: Kerry is a guy who plays with a high-motor. He loves football. He gives you everything he has. He adds some athleticism to the group, and to the unit. He has some quickness, he has some pass rush ability. He just plays extremely hard.

Q: Do you like the way he works inside on the line?

A: Kerry does a good job inside in the pass rush. He does a good job outside in the pass rush. He’s a good football player. He adds something to the defense.

Q: What has (DL) Josh Mauro brought since he’s been back?

A: Josh has a great understanding of the defense. Obviously, he’s been in the program for four or five years out there in Arizona. He brings some great knowledge to it. Again, Josh is a guy that has a lot of passion. He plays very hard. He’s knowledgeable, he can play anywhere on the line of scrimmage, and on the outside. So, he adds a lot to the defense.

Q: Is (DT) B.J. Hill a better player than what you expected since he’s gotten drafted?

A: That’s a tough question to answer. We anticipated B.J. to be a very good football player. That’s why we drafted him, but B.J. brings a lot to the table. He’s a very mature guy. He came in understanding football. He works hard, he’s tough, and he loves the game. He prepares, he studies, he takes care of his body.

Q: Are you careful to not overwork him? (Hill)

A: I wouldn’t say it’s a matter of overworking anybody. Everybody is eligible to play. We’re not limiting his snaps. We’re just basing it off of rotation and where the game is played out.

Q: What do you need to do to get a little more pass rush up front?

A: We just got to keep working. Keep working our technique. A lot of time the numbers say one thing, but the plan that we’re trying to do, when you’re playing against a mobile quarterback, you’re trying to keep them in the pocket. So, there might be different kind of rushes you give them. We just have to keep working on everything that we’re doing in the pass rushing game.

Q: (DT Damon Harrison Sr.) Snacks only plays about half of the defensive snaps. Is that because that’s all his body can handle at his size? Or is it because you need more of a pass rush?

A: Snacks plays, he does his role very well. He’s a good leader. He’s doing everything we ask him to do. He’s playing as much as we’re playing him, and doing a great job doing that. He’s in there to stop the run, and give us whatever pass rush he can. The numbers are not very important. We haven’t been playing a whole bunch of snaps per game. Nobody plays the way that I have coached in my history at defensive line. We always rotate guys and try to keep them fresh. So, it’s just a part of the rotation.

Q: How do you go about managing his snaps? Are you charting the numbers? Or, are you going by the feel of the game?

A: You always go by the feel, and based on what your eyes see. The guys will tell me if they need a blow. They’ll let me know I need a blow, just give me a play or two here or there. So, it’s more of a feel thing and where we are in the rotation.

Q: Do you have an idea of how much you want a guy playing?

A: You always have an idea. You want your best players to be as fresh as they can later in the game. That’s why you rotate them early, because once you get tired, you’re pretty much tired. So, you just kind of rotate the guys and keep them fresh.